VLA has decided to pause the development of our service, however, the code will remain public as a POC.
In the pre-owned luxury goods (PLG) market, 20% of consumers are defrauded into purchasing a counterfeit or stolen luxury product. 75% of consumers of PLGs are also sellers, meaning counterfeit goods are unknowingly being cycled through this circular economy at an alarming rate. Consumers of PLGs lack the credibility, capability, and resources to convey authenticity when they sell their products, reducing the product’s liquidity and value. The authenticity of PLGs can be difficult to determine, expensive to confirm, and expensive to communicate to a consumer. Despite purchasing an authentic product from a purveyor (seller of luxury goods), there is no solution that verifies the history of who has owned the PLG. Many consumers lack the confidence to purchase PLGs in fear of being defrauded, stalling the inherent circular motion of the PLG market.
The solution to the problem is Verified Luxury Authentics (VLA). VLA’s NFC (Near Field Communication) tags link physical luxury goods to a unique NFT (Non-Fungible Token) on the Ethereum blockchain to enable buyers to verify the good’s ownership history before purchasing. VLA will get its NFC tag technology and authentication servers from Seritag. The plan is to target purveyors who either resell or rework luxury goods to be sold to retail consumers. VLA will mint the associated NFTs on the Ethereum Blockchain and embed the NFT token information into a PLG’s NFC tag. Retail consumers will download a digital wallet at the point of purchase and have the accompanying NFT transferred to them along with the purchased luxury goods. At any time, the luxury good can be scanned to prove it passes Seritag’s authentication server and reveal product information or ownership history.